For a few years now, Team 17 have been updating and re-releasing Worms on various downloadable game services. They have always been the more successful 2D offering. The one title that really got me hooked though was there third 3D Worms game – Worms 4: Mayhem. An absolute blast in multiplayer it is an unusual but thoroughly entertaining night in with a few friends. How does Worms Ultimate Mayhem on Xbox 360 stack up?

This is not a complete review. I played Worms 4: Mayhem extensively on the original Xbox and downloaded the trial of Worms Ultimate Mayhem on my Xbox 360. I wanted to decide whether it was worth buying, seeing as I can play my original disc in my 360 and I have a save with everything unlocked. So what is in it for those that are looking to “upgrade” rather than those who will be playing it for the first time?

Essential this new package is a re-worked Worms 4 engine with every singleplayer and multiplayer feature intact plus the entire Worms 3D campaign. There is already two pieces of DLC available too – a set of single player missions and a set of maps for mulitplayer. There is promise of more content too. Audio has been given a buff by adding voice overs and lip-syncing to the single player campaign – it does come of rather well, but I think I prefer the meep-meep noise they made before. As for the graphics: the same textures are recycled here, but all of the latest shader and filter tricks are used to bring the visuals up to a reasonable level. Taken in it’s own right, Worms Ultimate Mayhem stands up well against other “arcade” titles available for 1200MSP.

The real question for me though, is, what changes have been made to improve the gameplay?

I think the question on your lips is: Can we have some bullet points? Yes, you can.

One of the worst problems with the Worms 4 experience was the insane loading times for the levels. My guess was that the game built each world one poxel at a a time. Unfortunately, level loading times are still pretty long. It is a shame that they couldn’t devise a better method to handle the loading – but, as with W4M, it is always worth the wait.

As incredibly frustrating, were the controls. Whilst a few more options are available on Xbox 360, you are still limited to 3 choices of controller layout. I couldn’t get on with the other two, so I set it to mimic the original. What we really needed is a system like modern FPS games. Hold Left Trigger to Aim Down the Sights (maybe left bumper for birds-eye view) and Right trigger to shoot. Whatever your presences, the controls are still difficult. As with Resident Evil, though, that’s where the skill comes in. Also, as a little something sweeter, if you use separate profiles and controllers you won’t have arguments about the inversion of the Thumbstick Y-axis. The original forced you to always use a single controller to pass around.

Next up is the camera. [ spoiler alert! – this one’s been fixed :) ] On a very frequent basis, Worms 4: Mayhem would refuse to shift the focus of the camera on to the action. You might call in an air-strike on 4 of your enemies, only to be rewarded with a view of the ocean and the sound of something that might be awesome sauce – if only you could see it. Ultimate Mayhem alleviates this by adding Picture-in-Picture cameras so you see everything that is going on. It works really well and actually adds a lot to the enjoyment of the game.

With the new Picture-In-Picture camera you can control your escape AND see your enemies demise at the same time

There is nothing added to multiplayer from Worms 3D, which is a shame, so there really is little new here. Singleplayer fans and achievement whore may as well get it anyway. Otherwise, for hardcore fans of 3D Worms multiplayer, the only real reason to get this is the reworked camera. Is it enough? For me, I think it is… but I might wait for it to be on sale.

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I enjoyed Worms 4 so much on the original Xbox that I wrote a guide on GameFAQs. It should be helpful to users of Worms Ultimate Mayhem too. The single player walkthrough isn’t complete but otherwise it is a very useful source for information on the game. You can read it on our site here:

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